Physics In Vogue is a photography exhibition that aims to shed light on profound contemporary physics discoveries by combining fashion photography, laboratory grade optical effects and scientific accuracy to create visual representations of complex science. Each exhibition piece features authentic imagery captured and uses real physical phenomena and techniques in place of computer generated graphics. Over the course of 2011-2014 I will photograph Nobel Laureates, science outreach celebrities and scientists to bring into focus ten astonishing physical phenomena, missions and projects along with their discoverers and founders. The exhibition features ten life-size, large-format framed prints and will be on display at Stanford University and a number of Science Centers around the country. This project merges my knowledge of modern physics and editorial photography to visualize advanced contemporary science concepts through the photographic medium. My primary objective is to use my abilities as a photographer to share some of the most extraordinary physical phenomena and theoretical wonders of the natural world with the general public in an accessible and captivating way.

This project is supported by the 2011 Stanford University Angel Grant and SiCA Spark! Grant.

Discoverer of Worlds DescriptionI was inspired to feature the Kepler Mission as Physics In Vogue's first piece as I know firsthand just how difficult it is to do this kind of science and thanks to a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to image the Venus transit. It takes painstaking dedication, brilliant minds and years of precision analysis to accomplish what the Kepler team has in so short a time. You can learn about the technology I developed behind the imagery on the HiMARC page. Check out the Get Involved page to learn how you can be a part of the extra-solar planet discovery process.Here is a color-coded breakdown of the components in Discoverer of Worlds (see map on right): The Kepler Space Telescope is NASA's first mission capable of finding Earth-size planets around other worlds. The real spacecraft would not fit in my studio and is currently in a heliocentric orbit, so I brought in the hand-built model and overlaid it with solar cell scraps for a look like the genuine spacecraft. Discovering a planet with the transit method is a particularly low-reward science as only about 5% of star systems are in such a favorable alignment so as to have transits. To contend with this, the Kepler SpaceTelescope stares at an area of the sky in the Cygnus Constellation to avoid the Sun, point out of the ecliptic plane and include a large number of stars in the field of view. I captured this background of the Cygnus constellation by combining more than 8-hrs of exposure time at Humboldt State Park and used my HiMARCalgorithms for processing. A bear nearly ate my dog in the process, but it turns out he was more interested in the berries. Red clouds of ionized Hydrogen gas form the emission nebulas, including the North American nebula (flipped for composition) while the Milky Way's dust lanes and stars dominate the frame.On June 5th 2012, among the rarest of predictable astrological events occurred as the planet Venus’ normal orbit brought it to pass between the Earth and the Sun. Kepler relies on such transits to occur light-years away and though unable to view the exoplanet directly, infers its presence by a tiny dip in the amount of light coming from its hosts star. Repeat transits are needed to insure it was not a giant space bug flying in front of the lens (among other things). This year astronomers were lucky to see the transit only eight years after the previous occurrence in 2004, but the world will have to wait until 2117 to see Venus pass before the Sun again. For me and the rest of the HiMARC team,the transitprovided a great opportunity to test our Atmospheric Lensing technology using a narrowband (7 nm) etalon interferometer tuned to the hydrogen alpha emission line on a 90mm refractor (this means we were able to filter out most of the light spectrum and only photograph a narrow portion in which hydrogen emits light. This allows you to see the rich textures of hydrogen on the Sun’s surface that would otherwise be obscured.) Solar features including filaments, flares, sunspots and prominences are visible. More than 1 Terabyte of data were recorded to produce this unprecedented high-resolution result!Dr. Natalie Batalha, Co-investigator on the Kepler Mission and Professor of Physics & Astronomy at San Jose State University, unassumingly brings the Vogue element to the piece and poses in the studio as I explain she should be reaching for the next new world with her right hand. As a member of the Kepler team, Dr. Batalha is responsible for the selection of the more than 150,000 stars the spacecraft monitors and works closely with team members at Ames to identify viable planet candidates from Kepler photometry.

Each photograph in this project creates an intuitive illustration of an underlying physics concept, theory or technique. However, as science matures, so too does the theoretical background necessary to interpret it in a meaningful way. The magnificence of modern science is often shrouded behind a realm of mathematical hieroglyphs and impenetrable scientific jargon while the most significant results can be at once subtle, yet profound. Unlike the vast majority of current artistic renderings that rely on computer graphics simulations to visualize these challenging concepts, I use physical realism and scientific accuracy to match my values as a scientist. I do not rely on computer graphic simulations to augment my photographs; instead I draw on my background in laser optics, photonics and astrophysics to create real physical effects for the purpose of concept visualization.

In the gallery below and in the blog, you can see the latest conceptual photo shoots, keep up-to-date on project status and find information on exhibitions open to the public. Below, you can find ideas for upcoming pieces.

If you are interested in learning more about this exhibition, or becoming a sponsor, please feel free to contact me.

Upcoming pieces:

Superfluidity
Superfluidity is a unique state of matter rarely encountered in nature in which a liquid undergoes a phase transformation to enter a state of absolutely zero viscosity. This remarkable property results in the ability of the liquid to flow straight through traditionally impermeable barriers, like the walls of a glass jar. The proposed photograph shows the discoverer of this phenomenon holding a beaker containing superfluid liquid Helium that is freely flowing through the bottom of the vessel. To achieve superfluidic properties, liquid Helium must be cooled to a hair above absolute zero.

General Relativity
Newtonian theories of gravity could not explain why light, which consists of massless particles called photons, is influenced by a gravitational field, like that of the Earth’s or supermassive celestial ￼objects. Einstein revolutionized our understanding of the very nature of space and time itself in his theory of General Relativity. Now, we understand why a light ray is bent by a gravitationally massive object – the massive body distorts the fabric of space and time around itself. The light ray then travels along this distorted path not because of any force acting upon in, but because the geometry of space is now different. It is akin to travelling along the surface of a sphere – imagine continuously driving south from Acapulco. Eventually, you would end up back in Acapulco. If you didn’t know you were actually on a round sphere, like Earth, you’d be baffled as to how this is possible. The geometry of your route was simply different. The proposed photograph uses a macro scale droplet of water to simulate a massive object and its impact on space-time. A laser beam is fired through the droplet and deflected, representative of what happens to light when it encounters warped space-time. Simultaneously, a model falls victim to the massive gravitational potential.

Laser Trapping
Light waves, just like water waves, exert pressure on an object when absorbed. This radiation pressure was used as part of a landmark laboratory technique developed by Dr. Steven Chu to confine particles in a small region using high intensity lasers. This technique proved fundamental to the trapping and cooling of a group of atoms to create a new form of matter, the Bose Einstein Condensate. The proposed photograph will feature a scientist optically trapped by a network of multiple wavelength lasers.

Turbulence
More than just a bumpy ride, turbulence is the study of the peculiar, chaotic properties of fluid in motion. Properly modeling the behavior of such complex flow is essential to the design of planes and aerodynamic structures. Stanford University Professor of Aeronautics & Astronautics, Dr. Sigrid Close has agreed to pose in the NASA Ames wind tunnel to demonstrate turbulent flow while suspended in an active wind tunnel.

Wave Particle Duality
Light underwent an identity crisis over the last century. One group of scientists triumphantly showed that light behaves like a stream of particles. They called these particles photons. They can be counted and measured. Then, another group conclusively showed that light behaves light a wave, diffracting from apertures and interfering with itself. Quantum mechanics resolved this conundrum in an unsuspecting way. It revealed that light is not the only thing that exhibits both particle and wave light properties. In fact, all matter is comprised of wave packets – localized wave functions that at a glance look like particles, but fundamentally interact as waves. My proposed photograph illustrates the conceptual evolution of light from a particle, as represented by a dancer in a tuck, to a wave, imitated by a high wire acrobat and finally to a mixture of the two – a wave packet.